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Unfiltered Union is like eavesdropping on your coolest neighbors! Russ and Lindz, from Tampa, Florida, are the opinionated (but always entertaining) couple next door, bringing you lively discussions about today's hottest topics.
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This is Linz.
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And this is Russ.
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And we're married.
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Are we?
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Yep, since 2013.
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We're the hosts of the Unfiltered Union podcast.
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Where we discuss popular headlines and interview interesting people.
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Our opinions may vary, but we will never censor our guests or our viewpoints.
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Welcome to the Unfiltered Union.
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Another one.
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You did it anyway.
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Just like DJ Cali.
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We have another guest and we are so excited about this one.
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I am going to be a total noob in this discussion.
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So once again, Russ is going to lead this.
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Yes, I will try my best.
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So we have Chris Revis on the show today and we're going to start with his intro
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and we're going to dive into something near and dear to Russ's heart.
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Let me tell you why.
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So Chris has an expertise in making complex topics easy to understand by a variety of audiences.
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In this case, we're going to be demystifying Bitcoin investing.
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Yes.
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To date, he has helped over 80 investors on their journeys to create generational wealth with Bitcoin.
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None of them were tech experts, financial gurus, or economists.
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All of them learned a ton and enjoy a positive return.
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So again, this is Russ's...
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True, blue, all the things that he loves.
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So we're going to have fun with this one today.
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And we can't thank you enough, Chris, for coming and joining us.
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Oh, it's my honor.
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So excited to be here.
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All right.
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Let's start with, again, I'm going to be the noob here.
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So I'm going to ask the really, I'm just going to say it, dumb questions, right?
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These are someone who I am not currently in that world and investing.
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Russ knows way more than I do.
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But for someone who knows nothing about Bitcoin, how would you define it?
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Yeah, it's actually a great question and there's no dumb ones.
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I'm glad you're asking.
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So there's a couple of different ways to think about it.
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So sometimes people quickly will answer,
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well,
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Bitcoin's digital gold because people can understand what gold is.
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Gold's had value for a long time.
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And they think about digital gold.
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Oh, I can just move gold on the internet from peer to peer.
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And that's, it's not entirely right, but that's one way to think about it.
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The more academic answer, it's a peer to peer currency, if you will.
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So I could send money to you
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with no bank, no credit card, no intermediary.
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I can sit it on Sunday at 10 a.m.
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in my pajamas, playing with my dog, drinking coffee, and it goes through.
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There's no three-day wait.
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There's nothing else like that.
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But it's digital money.
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It's incredibly secure.
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It's the most secure money that has ever existed and won't go too much in the weeds.
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The problem with Bitcoin is it's a deep well.
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But one thing that's very different about it, it's what's called a hard money.
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So it means it will not devalue.
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We're used to inflation being a normal thing and just kind of have accepted that, right?
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But Bitcoin is what's called a hard money.
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There's only a certain amount of currency that will ever exist.
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And that's a totally new concept.
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So big answer to your question, but that's what Bitcoin is.
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No, I appreciate that.
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I mean,
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the idea of the gold currency,
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I think that's a great way to put it because you're still putting a dollar value on gold,
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right?
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Right.
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I like that a lot.
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I think when we start thinking about Bitcoin, it does get really big and scary.
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Sure.
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But overall, I mean, why would I be interested in this?
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I know you're saying it's a hard investment.
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It is something that is...
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You can't create more of, and we shouldn't be used to that.
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So why should I be interested in Bitcoin?
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You know, I'm going to flip it and talk about the villain in the story.
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So a lot of times we don't think about our monetary system as a villain,
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and we don't study it in school,
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and we don't know about it.
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And a lot of people, a lot of us, myself included, are afraid of money, right?
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We've got a lot of fear and emotion around it.
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But
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If I talk about what's called a fiat system,
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which are all the modern currencies,
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US dollar,
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euro,
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all of them are what are called fiat,
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just a fancy word.
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They're not based on anything.
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So since 1971, we've been off the gold standard.
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The US dollar is literally printed out of thin air by 12 banks and the treasury.
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During COVID, we increased the currency almost 40%.
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So it's it's the villainization here is is banks and others are continually
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creating more currency so that they can pay off debts so that they can sell debt products,
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which is what banks sell.
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And it's just it creates an unsustainable thing for our families, for our generations, for.
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developing nations.
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It's just, I can't think of a better way to describe it, but evil.
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It's kind of the silent evil that's there.
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And so the only way to do that is to get rid of it and do something that's based on
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not countries,
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not companies,
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not human beings,
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that's trustless,
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that's decentralized,
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that's incredibly secure.
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And instead of just creating new currency all the time,
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um bitcoin doesn't have that so if you think of the simple example i'll give really
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quick long answer your question again sorry but if you think of a fraction and that
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bottom part of the fraction say you've got one fourth and someone just decides to
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move that four away and make it a hundred so now your currency is worth one one
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hundredth of what it was before right and that that's really what's happening that
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denominator is constantly changing and your buying power is going down we
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experience by higher prices right and we blame inflation we blame politicians which
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are really a sideshow
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But it's the currency devaluation is sort of the evil one.
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And Bitcoin's the only way I know out of that long term.
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And the reason I get excited about it is for my kids, for my grandkids.
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Hopefully we won't experience massive devaluation of all our currencies in our lifetime, but we may.
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And it's the only other option that's really out there in my mind that exists.
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Right.
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If you tell somebody that if you had $1,000 in your bank and you left that $1,000 there,
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it wouldn't be worth $1,000 as it was back then.
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No.
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But if you did $1,000 in Bitcoin 10 years ago, you'd be living a totally different life now.
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He will not let me live that down.
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We'll get to that story here in a minute.
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I made that mistake early too.
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Yeah.
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I mean...
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Ultimately, you know, I am the new bit.
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Obviously, Russ is more involved, but I hear a lot of things about altcoins.
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I hear a lot of things about alternative investments.
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A lot of even our friends and neighbors mentioned that they have their investments in the stock market.
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They're doing well.
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Why should I even consider something in crypto?
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So what would you what would your advice be to them?
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Bitcoin versus alternative investments?
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Yeah, well, first off, I'm not a qualified investment person at all.
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But what I would say to them as a friend would be,
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look,
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as part of your portfolio,
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Bitcoin makes a ton of sense and you can't ignore it.
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That's my first thing I would say.
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The other is I would take time to kind of educate them on what altcoins are and what they do.
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So where they're different than Bitcoin is they almost always have a venture
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capital firm or a CEO behind them.
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They're centralized, which is the same problem we have with the US dollar that I just talked about.
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And they kind of have these pump and dump schemes.
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So they'll get the money high.
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or the valuation high,
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then the VC takes their money,
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the venture capital company takes their money,
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and then it dumps.
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So it's not a good long-term store of value.
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Hardcore Bitcoiners have some derogatory words to say about altcoins.
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You know, there's, what, 25,000 of them?
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I mean, it's just kind of absurd.
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And I think Bitcoiners get upset because they get grouped with it, right?
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You're grouped with the gross stuff.
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Now...
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In regards to the stock market,
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you know,
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honestly,
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a lot of our portfolios and our 401ks and IRAs are in stock.
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So that doesn't mean that they're evil or wrong.
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And I wouldn't suggest everyone put all of their money in Bitcoin.
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Other folks would.
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But,
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you know,
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a one,
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two,
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three,
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four or five percent of what you're investing to put and hold that in Bitcoin long
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term is going to probably outdo the other 95 percent right over time.
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It's just as you get into it and no more, it's just math.
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It's just an algorithm.
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There's no sure thing in life,
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but on a long-term basis,
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on a 10-year,
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20-year basis,
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you're going to do incredibly well on Bitcoin.
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I wouldn't throw all the other stocks away.
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I would stay away from altcoins.
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A lot of people jokingly call it a casino and the house always wins.
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Oh, for sure.
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It's just a waste of energy.
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Absolutely.
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I agree with you on that.
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And a lot of those altcoins, they tend to have pre-mints, which they enrich their buddies.
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And then they sell it to us as the non-insiders.
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And then all of a sudden, we're buying it up.
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They have millions of them.
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And that's where the dump comes from.
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Yeah, it's Ponzi scheme, right?
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100%.
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And that's what cracks me up is a lot of these news agencies and things of that nature,
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they end up saying that,
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no,
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Bitcoin's the Ponzi scheme.
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I'm like, how?
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Right.
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There's nothing, there's no benefit to me owning more Bitcoin, like a proof of stake system.
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right there's a benefit there for joe schmoe who was in on the the the minting of
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said coin you know and and they've got 10 million of them now they got huge control
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over consensus and all that right so speaking of proof of stake yeah yeah how how
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are more bitcoin created yeah so um
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Bitcoin are mined, and I'll explain what that means in a second.
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But there's two things that happen with mining and also nodes.
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They often get glummed together as two different things.
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So nodes are actually, Bitcoin nodes run all over the world.
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There's hundreds of thousands of them, probably even a million at this point.
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They're free to stand up, totally decentralized.
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And that's what guarantees like a transaction goes through or validates each block, right?
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And a block is something that happens every 10 minutes.
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You can think of it.
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I'm going to say it a little bit wrong and hardcore Bitcoiners,
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you can scream at me,
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but think of it as a package.
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And in that package are some new Bitcoin and some transactions wrapped up in a nice
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big honking algorithm that's very secure.
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So every 10 minutes, one of these things is created right now.
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Every 10 minutes, it's 6.25 Bitcoin or easy way to think of it's 900 Bitcoin a day.
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Every four years, that number goes in half.
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So here in about a month, in April 24, that'll go to 450 a day.
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And it just gets smaller and smaller because that's how the algorithm works.
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Now,
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the way miners work,
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there's,
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I think,
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almost 7 million miners that we know about on the blockchain today.
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They're literally,
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most of them are ASICs,
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which think of like a shoebox with two fans in it and computer in the middle.
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That's all it is.
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It's not like a CO2 producing machine or something big elaborate.
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It's a really simple machine.
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that it's doing math.
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Now, people will say it's solving a hard math problem.
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That's not totally accurate, but it's finding very, very, very big prime numbers where the next block is.
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it's competing to create that package that I talked about, right?
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So it's got some transactions in it and some new Bitcoin.
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And if it is successfully able to create that package and put it on the network and validate,
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it's paid by Bitcoin.
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So the miners themselves are paid by Bitcoin.
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There's millions of them competing to get at that.
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And usually I have visuals to show that because it's a lot at once,
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but there's just large compute farms all over the world that are competing to win
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that block every 10 minutes and get paid in Bitcoin for that block.
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Well, I want to kind of harp on this because you said that, you know, inflation isn't a thing, right?
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It's not a thing with Bitcoin.
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But if more can be created, then isn't that a contradictory statement?
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It's a great question.
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Yeah.
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So there's a max count of Bitcoin that can ever be created of 21 million.
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It's hard coded in everything.
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It's in all the blocks.
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It's in all the nodes.
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If you were to change that, the nodes would reject it and it wouldn't work.
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So it's really hard coded in the algorithm.
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People will go, oh, you create more, you can't.
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I mean, unless there's a massive code change and 6 million miners and all the validators agreed.
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So there's only 21 million, not all of them have been created yet though.
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And so they're 900 created a day,
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soon it'll be 450 a day and eventually becomes a really small number until it
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reaches that 21 million.
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So in circulation today, roughly 19 million.
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Another 2 million-ish will be generated over the next 100 years.
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Now, the good news about it, Bitcoin is divisible like to a million zeros out.
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We're also not used to that.
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So in time, we'll talk about Satoshis instead of Bitcoin.
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So a decimal point out there, right?
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So there's plenty of Bitcoin to go around for our 8 billion on the planet.
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But there only will ever be 21 million.
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Does that answer your question?
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I know it's a lot of info at once.
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No, for sure.
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Again, Russ knows all this stuff and I swear he's said it to me a million times.
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So you're just reaffirming it for me and making it make more sense because I love
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my husband,
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but goodness gracious.
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My wife's the same way.
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She don't want to listen to me.
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No, I understand.
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Well, in that 21 million, you also have to factor in lost Bitcoin as well, which I think
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the creator Satoshi did say that you can think of lost Bitcoin as a donation to the,
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to the entire network because it makes ours,
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you know,
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if you own Bitcoin,
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it makes it worth more because now there's less than 21 million.
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But I did, I did want to kind of,
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name what that method is though it's mining but it's also called proof of work it
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is yes so so most of these alt coins they do proof of stake which means you have
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more that means you have more control over the rules that are created and things of
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that nature proof of work is in my opinion well yes it's far more secure it's far
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more secure and it's way more decentralized absolutely
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I need Chris to repeat that whole statement you just said because I didn't hear you.
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No, I'm kidding.
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No, I'm so glad you brought it up.
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So there's a difference between what's called proof of work and proof of stake.
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And you said it great.
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The other thing that I would add to proof of work is you can think of the value of
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Bitcoin as the energy it takes to create it.
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There's literally some electricity and some math that was solved and that gives it
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intrinsic value,
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right?
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You can also think of digital energy, if you were.
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Proof of stake is...
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Instead of all these miners competing and doing math and being decentralized,
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someone's holding a big bunch of it,
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and they're using that for the math.
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And that is really, from an ex-hacker perspective, really flippin' easy to hack.
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I know which point to attack.
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I know how I can fake it.
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I can do denial of service.
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I get all those nefarious things that bad actors can do.
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I was an ethical hacker, but all those bad things people can do.
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it makes it really easy to do.
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And that's where you see these attacks and exploits and stuff are stolen because
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you know where to go,
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right?
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You know that an insurance company has lots of health data, right?
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You know, a credit card company has lots of credit.
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So attackers know where to go.
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With proof of stake, it's the same thing.
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There's a dozen big holders, right?
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Ethereum or these other alts, you know exactly where to go.
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You can fake them and everything else.
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And then it's, again, we have the same problem.
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Us as humans should really not control money, right?
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It should be decentralized because every time we touch it, we kind of F it up a lot.
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Right.
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The greed gets in and all of our human stuff, we screw it up and and pretty bad.
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So, you know, that's another reason it's kind of an emotional thing and it's a human thing.
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But it's like we're not great with running financial systems as human beings.
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Right.
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It just tends to bad things happen eventually.
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And that's another reason I think proof of works way better.
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And the decentralization is better because it's it's trustless.
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We don't have to be involved in it.
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Yeah,
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and even besides the hacking point,
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if those 12 individuals that own the most of whatever altcoin,
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they can say,
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you know what,
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I want to print more.
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Right, absolutely.
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And that's,
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so everybody that bought into that system,
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now their stuff is now gonna be devalued just like our US dollar because- Right,
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the bottom of the fraction changes and yeah,
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and you're hosed.
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Yeah, and it never goes the other way.
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Isn't that funny?
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It never gets, you know.
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Yeah,
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but like,
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I like what you said where people shouldn't control money and that's the beauty of
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this Bitcoin is because it's like,
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it's everywhere.
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And I wanna kind of make the point that
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nodes are essentially the rule setters.
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Right.
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And those are super cheap to run.
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Yeah.
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You can go buy a raspberry pie on Amazon or whatever.
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They're kind of expensive now because of,
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you know,
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the supply issues with those,
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but you can get those usually for like a hundred bucks and then run a node and
(00:17:08):
you're part of the network making sure rules are being set and followed.
(00:17:13):
Totally.
(00:17:14):
I would recommend running one.
(00:17:15):
I run one.
(00:17:17):
It's cheap.
(00:17:18):
Yeah.
(00:17:18):
Get your old PC and put Linux on it and get it downloaded and away you go.
(00:17:23):
Yeah.
(00:17:24):
I mean, it takes a couple of days to get the whole network.
(00:17:27):
Yeah.
(00:17:27):
The initial blockchain.
(00:17:27):
It's kind of fun too, right?
(00:17:29):
Exactly.
(00:17:30):
I mean, for us geeks, it's fun.
(00:17:32):
It's a learning experience.
(00:17:34):
But I mean,
(00:17:35):
you're part of a decentralized currency that I do believe will change the world for
(00:17:40):
the better.
(00:17:40):
Oh, yeah.
(00:17:41):
Yeah, it already is.
(00:17:43):
For sure.
(00:17:44):
Exactly.
(00:17:44):
To kind of compound on that though,
(00:17:46):
when you say that you can get a Raspberry,
(00:17:48):
anybody can get a Raspberry Pi,
(00:17:49):
right?
(00:17:49):
And we're saying that security is so high.
(00:17:52):
Well, if anybody can get in it, get involved-
(00:17:56):
And how is it secure?
(00:17:58):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
(00:17:59):
Tell her a question.
(00:18:00):
So part of the rule set is there's a large number of validation.
(00:18:04):
So if I got a Raspberry Pi and I was a bad actor and I was doing bad things,
(00:18:07):
the rest of the network would give me the middle finger,
(00:18:09):
right?
(00:18:10):
And it would shut me off.
(00:18:12):
So between both the nodes and the miners, there's a set of rules that this is how we abide by.
(00:18:19):
And what's really cool though, Bitcoin does have a blockchain.
(00:18:23):
Blockchain has a bad name in Bitcoin world, but it is based on blockchain check.
(00:18:27):
There's an order to it, right?
(00:18:28):
So one, two, three, four, five.
(00:18:30):
If four like doesn't exist in your blockchain and try to hose it, you're also hosed.
(00:18:35):
So there's like this nice length of, um,
(00:18:39):
I'm not a mathematician,
(00:18:40):
so I won't say it well,
(00:18:41):
but there's a strand there that has to be there for this to work.
(00:18:44):
So if you introduce a Raspberry Pi in your own code and you try to hose it and you
(00:18:48):
change your number four,
(00:18:49):
the network's gonna reject it.
(00:18:52):
So yeah,
(00:18:53):
that's what's really cool is there's this decentralized network that validates
(00:18:57):
every single transaction.
(00:18:58):
So if I buy and send you money, I don't need a third party or a title company for anything.
(00:19:05):
I just send it to you and the nodes in the network guarantee that it's a legitimate
(00:19:09):
transaction or it's not.
(00:19:11):
But you're downloading the core source code.
(00:19:15):
The other part is the source code's all visible.
(00:19:17):
So you can see if you're a coder or know a coder, you can see exactly what's in it.
(00:19:21):
I mean, there's no, it's totally transparent.
(00:19:24):
Unlike a bank, like show me your ledger, they're not going to.
(00:19:26):
They can.
(00:19:28):
Right, or politician, show me your bank account.
(00:19:29):
Exactly.
(00:19:30):
You're never gonna see that.
(00:19:31):
It's all there to see, which is, it's a little overwhelming, right?
(00:19:36):
Yeah, for sure.
(00:19:37):
Now, you don't know who the people are on the other side.
(00:19:39):
There's some anonymity there.
(00:19:41):
Like, I don't know Bitcoin address this and Bitcoin address that is, you know, Russ and Chris.
(00:19:46):
But I do see that ledger and that this transaction happened.
(00:19:50):
So it's this nice combination of anonymity and like full transparency.
(00:19:55):
Yep.
(00:19:55):
Well,
(00:19:55):
I think that's probably another barrier to entry for a lot of people is the bad
(00:20:00):
press that Bitcoin can receive because of those bad actors who are anonymous and
(00:20:04):
they're really just taking everything from people.
(00:20:07):
Sure.
(00:20:08):
I mean, how do you feel that people could guard themselves if they were involved in Bitcoin?
(00:20:15):
So it's really interesting.
(00:20:16):
It gets brought up a lot.
(00:20:19):
Elizabeth Warren and others talk about child abduction and all the bad, scary things get put in.
(00:20:26):
The reality is Bitcoin and even the altcoins are an awfully bad way to do crime
(00:20:32):
because there's a full blockchain to find you.
(00:20:33):
So there's lots of examples of the US government finding people really quickly that
(00:20:38):
were dumb enough to use Bitcoin to do bad things.
(00:20:41):
Because there's a whole thing versus, you know, a stack of cash.
(00:20:43):
That's a lot better, right?
(00:20:44):
Here's the cash and...
(00:20:45):
Yeah.
(00:20:46):
That's what cracks me up about politicians dogging Bitcoin for being used for crime.
(00:20:51):
It's like, how much US dollar is every day being used for drug deals?
(00:20:55):
Printed.
(00:20:56):
Printed.
(00:20:57):
Yeah.
(00:20:57):
That's a crime in itself.
(00:20:58):
You're stealing from me.
(00:21:00):
No, no.
(00:21:01):
100%.
(00:21:01):
Yeah.
(00:21:02):
But I mean, those news stories are there.
(00:21:05):
It's important to just, I think, hear the person out and hear their fear out.
(00:21:08):
Because if I go right back at them, hey, you're wrong.
(00:21:10):
That's not good.
(00:21:11):
So
(00:21:11):
okay, I understand you're nervous.
(00:21:12):
I understand you're afraid.
(00:21:13):
That makes sense.
(00:21:14):
Let me explain to you how this works.
(00:21:15):
It's so much more secure
(00:21:22):
and safer than cash for sure.
(00:21:26):
But also if you think about like a Venmo or a PayPal or all those things,
(00:21:30):
or if you've ever had a bank like hold your funds for three days,
(00:21:33):
just because,
(00:21:34):
you know,
(00:21:34):
it takes that long to clear.
(00:21:36):
I'm like, it clears in 20 minutes, right?
(00:21:38):
The money moves in the backend network swift between banks in 20 minutes.
(00:21:42):
It doesn't take three days.
(00:21:44):
You know,
(00:21:44):
so I think that's just a time thing,
(00:21:46):
people getting comfortable with it and understanding,
(00:21:49):
I think,
(00:21:50):
going to Bitcoin events and seeing like, that's what really changed me.
(00:21:53):
I was an alt corner and Bitcoining until I started going to events.
(00:21:57):
And I saw the caliber of people that like really cared.
(00:22:00):
It's not about money for most Bitcoiners.
(00:22:02):
They actually want to change the world and,
(00:22:05):
and we're altruistic and maybe stupid enough to think we can do it.
(00:22:08):
But there's hardcore, you know, economists and others that are, that are in the Bitcoin space.
(00:22:14):
If you go to the alt coin ones or even like a,
(00:22:17):
you know, a company annual event, it's all hype and money and let's get rich quick.
(00:22:24):
And it's like that kind of noise.
(00:22:26):
And, you know, after a while you get tired of that.
(00:22:28):
So yeah, Bitcoin's different that way.
(00:22:31):
I think there are going to be some people that will just, you know, it's early.
(00:22:37):
It's like the internet when it first came out, folks like, what is that?
(00:22:40):
It's crap or, you know, and
(00:22:42):
When texting came out, it was big in Japan and not here.
(00:22:44):
I'm like, why are people like typing on their phones?
(00:22:46):
That makes no sense, right?
(00:22:47):
It's all catches on in time.
(00:22:50):
And there'll be early adapters, which we're still in that spot.
(00:22:54):
See?
(00:22:55):
Yeah.
(00:22:55):
You said we're still early.
(00:22:57):
Yeah.
(00:22:58):
Oh, yeah.
(00:22:58):
This is the problem that I have with trying to...
(00:23:02):
I'm not going to say convert,
(00:23:04):
but push people towards investing into Bitcoin.
(00:23:07):
Oh, it's too expensive.
(00:23:09):
It's $60,000 per coin.
(00:23:11):
And I'm like, but that's not...
(00:23:13):
You're, you're looking at it as a U S dollar thing.
(00:23:16):
Right.
(00:23:16):
That's not the, that don't do that.
(00:23:18):
And it's so hard to break people of that.
(00:23:21):
And I mean, I get it.
(00:23:22):
We've been on that U S dollar forever now.
(00:23:25):
Right.
(00:23:26):
But I'm, I'm trying so hard.
(00:23:28):
And how do you kind of deal with telling people like, look, it's early.
(00:23:33):
Yeah.
(00:23:34):
It looks like a lot.
(00:23:36):
And it,
(00:23:36):
and it is,
(00:23:37):
I mean,
(00:23:37):
if you want to get your,
(00:23:38):
you want to be a whole coiner or whatever,
(00:23:40):
it's a lot for sure.
(00:23:41):
Right.
(00:23:42):
But,
(00:23:43):
how do you kind of bring people back and kind of like explain,
(00:23:47):
yeah,
(00:23:48):
look,
(00:23:48):
it's not about that us dollar number right now.
(00:23:51):
And the upside of this is going to be massive.
(00:23:55):
I wish I was more successful.
(00:23:57):
Cause it seemed to be only a certain percentage, like want to get it right.
(00:24:00):
Um, I've used Legos.
(00:24:02):
I've literally put 21 Legos out there and like,
(00:24:05):
let me explain,
(00:24:06):
you know,
(00:24:06):
and I've done like the really simple supply and demand drawing,
(00:24:09):
like there's only ever 21 million.
(00:24:12):
Now we've got BlackRock and Fidelity buying a billion dollars of Bitcoin a day.
(00:24:18):
We're only making 900 and they're buying, which I don't know what 900 times 70 is.
(00:24:22):
What's that?
(00:24:25):
63 million, something like that a day.
(00:24:27):
And they're buying a billion a day, right?
(00:24:30):
So it's just supply and demand.
(00:24:32):
Right.
(00:24:32):
It's going to go up.
(00:24:34):
So folks get that.
(00:24:35):
I think also if I talk about generational wealth and the nice part about Bitcoin in
(00:24:41):
some ways is it's not a method of exchange yet.
(00:24:45):
We're not using it for everyday products.
(00:24:47):
If we're just being honest about you could, but it's not there.
(00:24:50):
It's a lot easier like a 401k.
(00:24:51):
It's a lot easier to park it and like not look at it and not try to spend it.
(00:24:56):
And that sounds weird, but the fact that you buy it and hold it is a really good thing.
(00:25:00):
And a lot of people resonate with that.
(00:25:03):
But honestly,
(00:25:04):
I would say 5% to 10% of all my normie friends take action and the others that
(00:25:10):
might roll their eyes at me or might get it later.
(00:25:13):
Maybe I planted a seed and it's going to come later.
(00:25:15):
Yeah.
(00:25:16):
And just keep going.
(00:25:16):
Cause I'm not going to convert everyone.
(00:25:18):
Right.
(00:25:20):
But it's, I can't just stand by at the same time with my friends and like, not say it.
(00:25:24):
Like I would feel awful for not like telling them,
(00:25:27):
you know,
(00:25:28):
there's posts on my Facebook of stuff almost every week of,
(00:25:33):
and not investment advice,
(00:25:34):
but just,
(00:25:36):
you know,
(00:25:36):
do you want,
(00:25:37):
do you want healthcare to change?
(00:25:39):
Do you want the things that aren't money?
(00:25:41):
I think if we talk about those, that's what resonates with people more, right?
(00:25:46):
Do you want us not to be at war all the time?
(00:25:48):
Do you want these things in your life?
(00:25:49):
Which everyone's like, yes.
(00:25:50):
I'm like, okay, the money system's a little broken.
(00:25:53):
Go look at that.
(00:25:54):
And then here's an option to tweak that.
(00:25:57):
Right.
(00:25:57):
So I like, this is kind of a cool little segue.
(00:26:02):
Why do you think Bitcoin would help with war?
(00:26:06):
Yeah.
(00:26:06):
Yeah.
(00:26:08):
I am not a defense expert and I have a huge love and respect for our veterans and all of our country.
(00:26:14):
Right.
(00:26:14):
But I wish we never had to put them in fricking harm's way in the first place.
(00:26:17):
Right.
(00:26:18):
In this day and age, it's not world war II.
(00:26:19):
We're not being invaded.
(00:26:21):
So in my opinion, um, the value of the U S dollar comes from our ability to defend ourselves.
(00:26:27):
Right.
(00:26:27):
In our military budget.
(00:26:29):
Right.
(00:26:29):
The other part,
(00:26:30):
that's kind of the villain that we're not talking about is when we devalue the U S dollar.
(00:26:35):
We made agreements with Saudi Arabia and others that all oil exchanges on the
(00:26:40):
planet have to be done in U.S.
(00:26:42):
dollar, which makes everyone have to hold the U.S.
(00:26:44):
dollar, which in a weird, bizarre way.
(00:26:47):
I mean, one, it makes every country angry with you because we keep evaluating like you talked about.
(00:26:53):
Right.
(00:26:53):
You've just devalued their debt with you.
(00:26:56):
and their method of exchange,
(00:26:57):
but it's also,
(00:26:58):
we've got this constant,
(00:26:59):
since it's not based on a hard asset like gold or Bitcoin,
(00:27:04):
not that gold's totally hard,
(00:27:05):
but it's harder than fiat,
(00:27:07):
we gotta constantly defend it and be the strongest country.
(00:27:10):
That's the only really value behind the US dollars, our ability to stay strong as a country.
(00:27:15):
That's where it comes from, right?
(00:27:17):
Next it would go to China or Russia after that.
(00:27:21):
So yeah, in my opinion, that's, you know, if you had Bitcoin,
(00:27:26):
And it's not controlled by a government,
(00:27:28):
which would be really bizarre for us because we're used to like dollar and Euro and that.
(00:27:31):
But if you had a currency, it didn't matter what country you're in.
(00:27:35):
It flips the power structure.
(00:27:36):
Like,
(00:27:38):
you know,
(00:27:38):
you don't need to have a massive military necessarily because we're all spending
(00:27:42):
the same money,
(00:27:43):
you know,
(00:27:43):
one way or the other.
(00:27:44):
And it changes the priorities.
(00:27:46):
Like, okay, proof of work.
(00:27:48):
Like we do a lot of proof of stake things in our, our, our normie life.
(00:27:52):
Right.
(00:27:53):
We hope that home prices just keep going up and we make money off that.
(00:27:57):
We're not doing work for that.
(00:27:59):
There's no work or effort, but we're valuing this increase.
(00:28:03):
And folks that can flip lots of houses and do lots of Airbnbs, they make lots of money.
(00:28:07):
I'm not trying to villainize them, but that's not really proof of work.
(00:28:10):
That's more of a proof of stake thing.
(00:28:13):
What if we valued the farmers and the producers and people that create things of value?
(00:28:20):
it would flip like our value system, right?
(00:28:23):
And how we treat people and everything else.
(00:28:25):
So I think that's a long answer to your question.
(00:28:27):
I don't have like a super succinct one.
(00:28:28):
I'm not like a Jeff Booth or those guys,
(00:28:31):
but I think once you take the money out of it,
(00:28:34):
I mean,
(00:28:35):
I joke about this in the Middle East.
(00:28:37):
We spent all this money on oil.
(00:28:39):
If you took all that money out of the Middle East, I think we'd see something different, right?
(00:28:43):
I mean, right?
(00:28:46):
It changes the problem.
(00:28:47):
So
(00:28:48):
And again, I am not against anyone that serves.
(00:28:52):
I have huge respect for those people.
(00:28:54):
But I just wish we didn't have to put them in harm's way so much.
(00:28:57):
Absolutely.
(00:28:57):
It's just a waste of talent.
(00:29:00):
For sure.
(00:29:01):
That's nuts.
(00:29:02):
I'm sorry.
(00:29:03):
What you just said really hit me.
(00:29:05):
Like the idea of the way of old, right?
(00:29:08):
The old way to invest is real estate.
(00:29:11):
Like try and screw, right?
(00:29:13):
People make money off of real estate.
(00:29:14):
And that is something that people talk about all the time.
(00:29:17):
But if you flip it on its head and put in Bitcoin, the idea of utilizing that in agriculture?
(00:29:24):
Right.
(00:29:26):
Wow.
(00:29:28):
Yeah, it creates abundance, right?
(00:29:29):
So the price is actually,
(00:29:31):
what's really weird is we have all of this and other smart people have said this to
(00:29:34):
me and I've just taken it in.
(00:29:35):
So we have all this incredible technology to mass produce things.
(00:29:40):
Why aren't prices going down?
(00:29:42):
Like, why aren't we paying less for lettuce or less for consumables and oil?
(00:29:46):
We're paying more.
(00:29:47):
It makes zero sense.
(00:29:48):
And it's because we're devaluing that dollar.
(00:29:51):
We're devaluing the currency.
(00:29:52):
Right, right.
(00:29:53):
And if the currency is increasing in value or it's scarce where there's less of it,
(00:29:59):
then it creates abundance because things are actually priced less,
(00:30:03):
which it takes a while.
(00:30:05):
My brain still goes, what?
(00:30:07):
It breaks my brain.
(00:30:10):
If you know, let's pretend that we could all have good lives and be healthy.
(00:30:13):
It's not that we're going to be poor.
(00:30:15):
That's not what it means.
(00:30:17):
But if things were abundant, I'm like,
(00:30:19):
Well, that would solve a lot of problems.
(00:30:21):
Exactly.
(00:30:22):
Exactly.
(00:30:23):
Yeah.
(00:30:24):
And we valued effort and work that people put towards something,
(00:30:27):
regardless of who they are or where they are or what country they're in.
(00:30:30):
Um, that flips a lot of things on its head.
(00:30:33):
So yeah, that's one of the reasons I'm behind Bitcoin.
(00:30:34):
It's not just like a geeky fun thing,
(00:30:36):
but as I get deeper into it and learn more,
(00:30:38):
I'm like,
(00:30:38):
this really has capacity to change a lot of things.
(00:30:41):
Yeah.
(00:30:42):
I mean, making people mad at you because you are printing
(00:30:46):
us dollars out of thin air when the it's essentially the world's reserve currency.
(00:30:51):
Right.
(00:30:51):
Right.
(00:30:52):
For now.
(00:30:53):
Right.
(00:30:54):
Yeah.
(00:30:54):
Of course they're going to get mad at you.
(00:30:56):
They're holding billions.
(00:30:57):
Who knows how much and holding our debt in 34 trillion.
(00:31:02):
Right.
(00:31:03):
Exactly.
(00:31:03):
And it's being, it's less and less.
(00:31:05):
And I did read somewhere that we are purposefully devaluing it.
(00:31:09):
So our debt number is technically a lot less.
(00:31:14):
Yeah.
(00:31:14):
Yeah.
(00:31:16):
I'll get the numbers wrong, but it's roughly like this.
(00:31:18):
Our federal budget, let's call it $2 trillion a year.
(00:31:21):
The number's wrong.
(00:31:22):
But we only have like $1 trillion to pay it.
(00:31:25):
So we print another trillion so that we can run our...
(00:31:29):
We're in a government, right?
(00:31:31):
It's just like, what?
(00:31:33):
It's funny money.
(00:31:34):
Make it up.
(00:31:35):
Right.
(00:31:36):
Yeah.
(00:31:38):
Right.
(00:31:38):
Exactly.
(00:31:39):
Exactly.
(00:31:40):
So deep and more than most people go into.
(00:31:42):
And we're not talking, taught about money in elementary school in any way, shape or form.
(00:31:46):
Right.
(00:31:49):
Right.
(00:31:49):
Right.
(00:31:49):
Yeah.
(00:31:50):
Right.
(00:31:50):
Give the credit card.
(00:31:51):
We give credit cards out, but that's about it.
(00:31:54):
Yeah.
(00:31:54):
And, and just bury yourself in debt.
(00:31:56):
Yeah.
(00:31:57):
Right.
(00:31:58):
Because that's how the banks make money and they run the country.
(00:32:00):
Yeah, exactly.
(00:32:01):
Exactly.
(00:32:03):
So you did say a couple of things about digital energy.
(00:32:08):
Yeah.
(00:32:09):
What do you have to say to the naysayers that about that the Bitcoin and its energy?
(00:32:17):
I think that's a bunch of crap because if you pull in the data and you look and see
(00:32:25):
how much energy Visa,
(00:32:27):
Capital One,
(00:32:29):
American Express,
(00:32:30):
these huge high rise buildings that have thousands of employees that are sitting in
(00:32:35):
there day in and day out.
(00:32:38):
I bet you their energy footprint's way up there versus Bitcoin.
(00:32:42):
Yeah.
(00:32:42):
No, you hit the nail on the head.
(00:32:43):
The site I love to use, there's a study done by Cambridge.
(00:32:48):
So Cambridge University of England,
(00:32:49):
super renowned,
(00:32:50):
legit university,
(00:32:51):
has done a study that I think is the most non-biased one.
(00:32:54):
It's always updated.
(00:32:55):
It shows all the energy in the world.
(00:32:57):
And it's pretty close, I'd say within 5% of the Bitcoin energy usage.
(00:33:01):
It's at, right now, globally, 0.6% of the total energy usage.
(00:33:06):
So
(00:33:07):
You know,
(00:33:07):
I would argue ninety nine point four percent might be the problem we want to go
(00:33:10):
after and not the point six.
(00:33:11):
But that aside, you know, anecdotally, we don't get concerned about I have an electric car.
(00:33:19):
We don't get concerned about plugging in electric cars and that hit on the grid.
(00:33:22):
Right.
(00:33:22):
That's a popular thing because it reduces CO2 and it's culturally popular right now.
(00:33:26):
Right.
(00:33:27):
And Bitcoin's a little unknown.
(00:33:29):
It probably uses a little more energy.
(00:33:30):
It's around 20.
(00:33:32):
trillion watts per hour a year for all the Teslas plugged in in the US.
(00:33:38):
And we're probably at about 25 for Bitcoin.
(00:33:42):
It's a very, very small percentage.
(00:33:44):
It's creating value.
(00:33:45):
The other thing is I'm pretty deeply geekily involved in Bitcoin mining.
(00:33:50):
All of my miners are using renewables and there's more renewables that can be used.
(00:33:55):
I'll explain why in a moment because of Bitcoin.
(00:34:00):
Take wind turbines, for example, right?
(00:34:01):
When the wind's blowing, they're going, they can produce energy.
(00:34:04):
When the wind's not blowing, they can't.
(00:34:06):
The grid wants a stable energy, right?
(00:34:08):
When you flip the switch on, you just want electricity to flow.
(00:34:10):
It can't have that variability.
(00:34:14):
The cool thing about Bitcoin is that additional energy use, it can use right away.
(00:34:19):
So you can actually build a larger wind farm because you can sell that wind.
(00:34:23):
You can build a larger grid.
(00:34:25):
because the energy is there to use it.
(00:34:27):
So it's actually better.
(00:34:28):
It's a weird sort of subtle thing, but it's better.
(00:34:31):
The last thing I'd say on energy, I have a buddy in Texas that just started doing this.
(00:34:36):
So flared gas,
(00:34:38):
when you take natural gas up and you see like these burning things you drive by in
(00:34:42):
the sky,
(00:34:44):
that's putting flat out methane,
(00:34:46):
right,
(00:34:46):
in the atmosphere.
(00:34:47):
It's probably the worst gas to put out in large volumes.
(00:34:51):
And they're burning that off as part of the natural gas mining process.
(00:34:56):
He has a Bitcoin mine he just started,
(00:34:58):
and there's lots of these,
(00:34:59):
where instead of that flaring up into the air,
(00:35:02):
that's going to a generator and it's powering his Bitcoin farm.
(00:35:05):
So total waste methane is being taken out of the air by Bitcoin miners.
(00:35:10):
So, I mean, it's a small percentage.
(00:35:13):
There is energy usage.
(00:35:15):
I would not want to live within a Bitcoin farm.
(00:35:18):
I wouldn't want to live within a manufacturing car production place.
(00:35:23):
You don't want to live right in it.
(00:35:25):
But it's clean.
(00:35:27):
It's literally a fan going through a shoebox.
(00:35:29):
It doesn't produce CO2 any more than plugging in your electric car produces CO2.
(00:35:34):
And yeah, there's a lot of naysayers.
(00:35:35):
There's a lot of noise.
(00:35:37):
Some of the altcoin CEOs are funding things to get more noise out there.
(00:35:42):
But
(00:35:42):
It's not bad.
(00:35:43):
I'm kind of an environmentalist too.
(00:35:45):
And I have like zero qualms about Bitcoin mining from an environmental standpoint.
(00:35:50):
I mean, none.
(00:35:51):
Right, right.
(00:35:53):
And yeah, I think Bitcoin mining does incentivize more investment in the energy grid.
(00:36:01):
Oh, big time.
(00:36:02):
I mean, I know Texas has a lot of issues with energy grids.
(00:36:06):
They totally do.
(00:36:07):
And-
(00:36:08):
I can't remember.
(00:36:09):
I think it might've been last year.
(00:36:10):
They had all those winter storms.
(00:36:12):
Right.
(00:36:13):
They needed all that power.
(00:36:14):
So all the Bitcoin miners said, all right, we'll shut it off.
(00:36:16):
Yeah.
(00:36:17):
They shut it off.
(00:36:17):
Boom.
(00:36:18):
That grid stabilized and all that extra energy that Bitcoin was using.
(00:36:22):
That would have been, you know.
(00:36:24):
Oh, it's a hundred percent right.
(00:36:25):
And the grid wouldn't be that big if they weren't Bitcoin demand.
(00:36:28):
And yeah, you're right.
(00:36:28):
Texas has a ton of, actually it's the largest producer of wind energy in the country.
(00:36:33):
It's kind of amazing.
(00:36:34):
They built lots and lots of wind farms along the coast coastline there.
(00:36:37):
So it's one of the better places for wind and they have more capacity than they know what to do with.
(00:36:41):
So those turbines are just sometimes sitting there freewheeling.
(00:36:45):
Right.
(00:36:46):
It's kind of sad.
(00:36:46):
If you're going to go to the effort to put that up.
(00:36:48):
I mean, let's use the energy.
(00:36:50):
Just like if you're going to put a dam in the river, let's use the hydro.
(00:36:52):
You've already screwed up the river.
(00:36:53):
So let's use the hydro.
(00:36:54):
Exactly.
(00:36:55):
Right.
(00:36:57):
Um, this is just, this is a question that just popped into my head.
(00:37:00):
What happens to, okay.
(00:37:02):
So that grid is increased because of Bitcoin.
(00:37:04):
What happens when the miners do shut off?
(00:37:07):
What does that extra excess energy?
(00:37:10):
What does that do?
(00:37:11):
Yeah.
(00:37:11):
It's there's only enough energy on the grid for the needs of the grid at the time.
(00:37:16):
It's there's tons of, so, um,
(00:37:18):
The West Coast, the East Coast, and Texas have their own grids.
(00:37:22):
And there's literally only enough energy for it.
(00:37:25):
So if you don't have enough, you have experienced brownouts.
(00:37:27):
If you have too much, it pops breakers.
(00:37:30):
So when the Bitcoin miners turn off,
(00:37:33):
the grid operators,
(00:37:35):
you know,
(00:37:36):
if a large farm,
(00:37:37):
I mean,
(00:37:37):
this would take a really big farm for it.
(00:37:39):
They deal with fluctuations all day long.
(00:37:41):
But if a really large farm were to go down, they would actually curtail energy production by other sites.
(00:37:47):
whether it's gas or coal or solar,
(00:37:49):
whatever,
(00:37:50):
and say,
(00:37:50):
Hey,
(00:37:50):
instead of operating 150 gigawatts,
(00:37:52):
I need you at one 48.
(00:37:53):
Uh, yeah.
(00:37:55):
Electrons.
(00:37:56):
Like there's a really funny animation.
(00:37:58):
You define it, but electron all energy is an electron.
(00:38:00):
So they come from the source of generation to your light switch, your computer, whatever else.
(00:38:05):
And then they actually go back home.
(00:38:06):
There's a little circle.
(00:38:07):
Um, so when you mess up that circle, those electrons are going to go somewhere else, right?
(00:38:11):
So you want to make sure that circle's really healthy.
(00:38:14):
You don't want that circle going through your house or if there's a downed power line,
(00:38:18):
please don't get near it because the electricity will go right through the ground
(00:38:20):
and hurt you.
(00:38:22):
But yeah,
(00:38:23):
that's what happens is if any large industrial thing dropped off the grid and
(00:38:28):
dropped demand,
(00:38:28):
the grid would have to adjust down.
(00:38:31):
But adjusting down is okay.
(00:38:33):
Absolutely.
(00:38:34):
Right, right.
(00:38:35):
Brownouts, that's what you don't want.
(00:38:38):
Right.
(00:38:39):
You don't want enough power and Bitcoin creates that.
(00:38:43):
Yeah.
(00:38:44):
And it's probably the easiest.
(00:38:45):
You hit it so well.
(00:38:46):
It's the easiest industrial thing.
(00:38:47):
Like you can turn it right off and it won't hurt anything.
(00:38:49):
You can't do that with a chemical plant or a car production plant.
(00:38:54):
It's going to be at least an hour for them to ramp down all their stuff safely.
(00:38:58):
Whereas Bitcoin, you can literally pull the plug or flip the breaker and you're done.
(00:39:02):
Yeah.
(00:39:03):
And in regards to that flared gas, I read about why they do it.
(00:39:07):
They flare gas because it would cost more to take that gas and then go sell it.
(00:39:13):
You know, get a truck all the way out to these mining sites.
(00:39:17):
Nowhere to store it.
(00:39:18):
Yeah.
(00:39:18):
Nowhere to store it.
(00:39:19):
So they're like, all right, it's either I pay this guy that drives this truck.
(00:39:23):
Right.
(00:39:23):
You know, 100 bucks an hour to drive out here 10 hours to this remote site.
(00:39:28):
Right.
(00:39:28):
Fill their tank up.
(00:39:30):
Right.
(00:39:30):
And drive all the way back.
(00:39:31):
It's going to cost me $10,000, but all I got to do is just burn it.
(00:39:35):
Right.
(00:39:35):
Well, of course they're going to burn it.
(00:39:37):
But now you're incentivizing actually utilizing that gas in a cleaner manner by
(00:39:43):
running it through a clean generator.
(00:39:46):
Yep.
(00:39:46):
That can then power a little mini Bitcoin farm.
(00:39:49):
Yeah.
(00:39:50):
That is awesome.
(00:39:51):
It's pretty cool.
(00:39:52):
Yeah.
(00:39:53):
It's nuts.
(00:39:55):
But see, how do you...
(00:39:58):
how can you dog Bitcoin when there's all this like insane innovation coming out of it?
(00:40:05):
Yeah.
(00:40:05):
Like they were never doing things with that gas before.
(00:40:09):
No.
(00:40:09):
Now all of a sudden you're incentivizing.
(00:40:11):
All right.
(00:40:13):
Instead of burning that in a dirty way, which is a fire, you know, right.
(00:40:18):
And probably dangerous.
(00:40:19):
Yeah.
(00:40:20):
Yeah, exactly.
(00:40:21):
You're going to sit there.
(00:40:21):
You're going to put a nice high end clean generator there that will power these
(00:40:26):
miners and you're going to make money off of
(00:40:28):
Absolutely.
(00:40:29):
And, and secure the network and secure the network.
(00:40:32):
It's, it's, it's kind of a win all the way around.
(00:40:34):
Yeah, exactly.
(00:40:35):
Exactly.
(00:40:36):
Well, I, I've learned a lot.
(00:40:38):
Certainly.
(00:40:43):
But I mean,
(00:40:44):
based on what we know of you,
(00:40:45):
you have helped 60 everyday investors participate in the complex world of Bitcoin
(00:40:49):
mining and helped other Bitcoin investors create 352 million in generation wealth
(00:40:54):
for their families.
(00:40:55):
I mean,
(00:40:56):
to kind of close out this segment here,
(00:40:58):
what advice would you give someone just starting out on their crypto journey?
(00:41:01):
Bitcoin journey.
(00:41:03):
Yeah, well, you said it all.
(00:41:05):
I mean, you know, the nice part is you can start small.
(00:41:10):
It's normal to be afraid.
(00:41:11):
There's a lot of info.
(00:41:13):
There are a couple places that I, there's a lot of good on ramps, right?
(00:41:17):
So I'll name one and someone will name three others.
(00:41:21):
I would say Swan Bitcoin, River, and Unchained are places I would trust.
(00:41:26):
They have free information.
(00:41:28):
They're well done.
(00:41:30):
They only do Bitcoin.
(00:41:31):
They're not doing altcoins.
(00:41:32):
The gotcha with the Coinbases and the Geminis and all that is you're walking into a casino, right?
(00:41:38):
You're going to get sidetracked by the video game machine and go play that and be
(00:41:41):
sad that you lost money.
(00:41:43):
So, I mean, that's where I would start.
(00:41:45):
There's a lot of great books.
(00:41:47):
There's local meetups everywhere in the country and in the world.
(00:41:50):
And just think about something simple.
(00:41:53):
One simple exercise I do is like if you were not to go to Starbucks one day a week
(00:41:56):
and that five or eight dollar latte you just put into Bitcoin,
(00:42:00):
if you just did that for five years,
(00:42:02):
which sounds like a lot,
(00:42:03):
but if you did that for five years,
(00:42:05):
you'd probably be a millionaire year 10 or 12.
(00:42:07):
That's the power of Bitcoin and long term holding your money.
(00:42:10):
It doesn't take a lot.
(00:42:12):
People that don't have much can really do well.
(00:42:14):
So that's where I would start.
(00:42:15):
And Swan Bitcoin is one of my favorite only because I know those people well,
(00:42:20):
but I know River and Unchained are great entry points as well.
(00:42:24):
So let me ask you a question.
(00:42:26):
Yeah.
(00:42:27):
What is your price prediction within the next five to ten?
(00:42:31):
We just argued about this yesterday.
(00:42:35):
Yeah.
(00:42:36):
So folks listening, every four years, there's a bull market.
(00:42:40):
Every other two years, there's a bear market.
(00:42:41):
It's a cycle.
(00:42:42):
And people freak out.
(00:42:43):
Oh, Bitcoin's going to nothing.
(00:42:44):
I'm like, no, it's the bear market.
(00:42:45):
And two more years, it'll be the bull market.
(00:42:47):
It's like a wave of swell coming in.
(00:42:49):
Did you listen in to our argument yesterday?
(00:42:52):
No, I wasn't.
(00:42:53):
No, but I would say, I mean, we're going to hit six digit.
(00:42:56):
How big we go is really hard to predict.
(00:42:59):
I mean, I think it'll go at least 150.
(00:43:01):
I have friends that say that it'll go 250.
(00:43:03):
I'm like, really?
(00:43:04):
Yeah.
(00:43:06):
My time horizon is 2030 plus, you know, so I'm looking at when Bitcoin is six and seven figures.
(00:43:12):
I'm holding until then.
(00:43:14):
But I think in this cycle, I would not be surprised if it goes 150.
(00:43:20):
A couple of good people I trust think it's going to go to 250.
(00:43:24):
It's fun to watch, but I'm also like watching my own like human instinct behavior.
(00:43:28):
I'm like, Chris, you're holding for one million plus.
(00:43:30):
Yeah.
(00:43:32):
So you do you actually do believe that in the longer term that it'll be one million plus?
(00:43:38):
Oh, yeah.
(00:43:38):
Yeah.
(00:43:39):
I don't have any doubts.
(00:43:40):
I used to have some doubts and I just I've studied more and thought more and seeing what's happening.
(00:43:45):
Sorry, I'm staring at her.
(00:43:47):
Yeah.
(00:43:47):
No, you know, I'm cautious.
(00:43:49):
I wouldn't put everything I have into it at all.
(00:43:52):
But it's how I'm going to leave.
(00:43:53):
It's how I am leaving generational wealth for my kids and when I have grandkids as well.
(00:43:57):
I mean, that's, you know, I hope it changes the world for them.
(00:44:01):
Right.
(00:44:02):
And I don't know that my U.S.
(00:44:03):
dollar stuff will.
(00:44:04):
Right.
(00:44:04):
In the same way.
(00:44:05):
Yeah.
(00:44:06):
And you know what?
(00:44:06):
You know what else that we didn't really touch on was holding your own keys.
(00:44:11):
Yeah.
(00:44:12):
To that wealth.
(00:44:13):
That is an insanely.
(00:44:15):
So powerful.
(00:44:16):
Awesome, powerful concept that a lot of people aren't.
(00:44:20):
No more.
(00:44:21):
You know.
(00:44:22):
Yeah, exactly.
(00:44:24):
When you log into your bank online, all you're seeing is a balance, and it's an Excel spreadsheet.
(00:44:29):
You don't know if that money's actually there.
(00:44:31):
It's not.
(00:44:33):
Right, exactly.
(00:44:34):
It's being lent out.
(00:44:36):
They're making money off your money, and you get a little teeny bit of interest.
(00:44:40):
Right.
(00:44:41):
But Bitcoin, you can literally hold your own keys.
(00:44:43):
Oh, this is a totally different topic.
(00:44:45):
No, no, you're right though.
(00:44:46):
And it's for most folks when they're new, I just get them on.
(00:44:49):
And then after that, yeah, here's how you take self-custody.
(00:44:52):
Yeah.
(00:44:53):
And people get a little scared of that.
(00:44:54):
We're used to like banks feeling like they're safe and we're brought up to think
(00:44:57):
that banks are safe and they're really not.
(00:44:59):
But the power of being able to transact anywhere, anytime for anything, it's incredibly powerful.
(00:45:08):
And to hand it over to your kids,
(00:45:10):
and I'm not advocating doing anything illegal,
(00:45:12):
you can have a trust and a will and all that structure.
(00:45:14):
But it's very easy to do that versus I've dealt with,
(00:45:19):
you know,
(00:45:19):
family dying and passing away and dealing with lawyers and banks as a nightmare,
(00:45:23):
even if you have stuff in order.
(00:45:25):
Absolutely.
(00:45:26):
Right.
(00:45:26):
Here's the transaction.
(00:45:27):
Go and put it in the wallet.
(00:45:29):
Yeah.
(00:45:30):
Yeah.
(00:45:30):
Other than that, I'm just a little bit of a Bitcoin maxi.
(00:45:34):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
(00:45:36):
Well, you have been a wealth of knowledge and I appreciate it.
(00:45:39):
I know Russ is having the time of his life right now.
(00:45:41):
Absolutely.
(00:45:42):
Appreciate everything that you've given us.
(00:45:44):
And we also know that you have a new book out.
(00:45:48):
I do.
(00:45:48):
Your bullshit resilience at work.
(00:45:51):
I like it.
(00:45:52):
Yeah.
(00:45:52):
Tell us about it.
(00:45:55):
I'm excited.
(00:45:56):
It comes out here.
(00:45:57):
It should be out in May.
(00:45:58):
So it's with the editors right now.
(00:46:01):
I wrote two other books because I wanted to serve people.
(00:46:04):
So one is about my journey with autism and my sons.
(00:46:07):
One's about Bitcoin mining.
(00:46:09):
And this one's about dealing with bullshit at work.
(00:46:11):
And if we're being honest,
(00:46:13):
I think we all complain about,
(00:46:14):
we spend so much of our life talking about,
(00:46:16):
I'm boss.
(00:46:17):
I mean, I do that, right?
(00:46:19):
And we come home and it's, I think a lot of times,
(00:46:22):
a stressor hits us.
(00:46:23):
We don't have the skill to handle it.
(00:46:24):
And so we just kind of bitch and moan about it.
(00:46:26):
And so for folks that don't want to stay bitching and moaning about it,
(00:46:29):
I walk through about 13 different skills that you can use.
(00:46:34):
I talk about side hustle or not side hustle.
(00:46:37):
I've had good ones.
(00:46:38):
I've had bad ones.
(00:46:39):
So I walk people through that.
(00:46:41):
And then if it's really time to go,
(00:46:42):
which sometimes it is,
(00:46:43):
I'm not advocating to stay in crap forever,
(00:46:45):
but
(00:46:46):
you know,
(00:46:47):
when you do really need to go,
(00:46:48):
or it's a situation that's just illegal and immoral and you need to get out,
(00:46:51):
like here are the 10 steps to think about.
(00:46:53):
Cause usually in those States,
(00:46:54):
we're like emotional and pissed and we're not like thinking through,
(00:46:57):
and we might make a lifelong mistake.
(00:46:59):
Um, you know, maybe burned our bridges too bad.
(00:47:02):
So I walked through that.
(00:47:02):
So that's, that's it.
(00:47:04):
There's a lot of anecdotal stories that, um,
(00:47:07):
I've gathered from all my friends and family.
(00:47:08):
I've changed all the names.
(00:47:10):
But it's a mix of humor,
(00:47:13):
but also giving people some skills that they might not have thought about or had.
(00:47:18):
Sometimes we do have to endure,
(00:47:21):
for whatever reason,
(00:47:22):
an unperfect work environment for a few months or a few years.
(00:47:26):
And so how do you stay happy and healthy in that?
(00:47:29):
Not sell yourself out.
(00:47:31):
Um, you know, and not, not swear and scream and over drink or anything else too, but how do you do it?
(00:47:37):
So that's what the book's about.
(00:47:38):
Um, and it's just stuff I've learned along the way and had smart people mentor me on.
(00:47:43):
I just felt like I needed to share it.
(00:47:44):
So that's awesome.
(00:47:45):
It's coming out probably about May this year.
(00:47:47):
Okay.
(00:47:47):
And where, where can they get it?
(00:47:48):
It'll be on Amazon.
(00:47:49):
All my stuff's on Amazon.
(00:47:50):
Okay.
(00:47:51):
Awesome.
(00:47:51):
Awesome.
(00:47:52):
so digital and paper or yep kindle and paper yep totally sounds good okay so mark
(00:47:58):
it down in may we're gonna read your book and we'll do a book club in june and have
(00:48:02):
you come back talk about your new book we'll talk about the bullshit yep yeah yeah
(00:48:07):
yeah seriously i could have used it all of what less than a year ago at this point
(00:48:11):
i went through a really hard work experience but
(00:48:15):
to kind of segue to the question about your book here, not my past.
(00:48:20):
Um,
(00:48:21):
so what do you believe is needed for someone to be successful in the workplace in
(00:48:24):
today's environment?
(00:48:25):
Wow.
(00:48:26):
Um, I Bitcoin, but I think resilience is lacking and it's not just like financially.
(00:48:34):
We don't really teach resilience, like how to get through stuff.
(00:48:37):
And maybe we don't have the strong family fabric that we used to have, whatever, but it's the, um,
(00:48:43):
The folks I'm working with that are younger in their careers,
(00:48:45):
it's not because they're young,
(00:48:46):
but they just don't have that resilience yet.
(00:48:50):
You know, and it's maybe like a time preference, like I need something to change right now.
(00:48:54):
So, I mean, some of it is stepping back and reflecting on it.
(00:48:59):
What can you do?
(00:49:00):
You know, can you do something about this?
(00:49:02):
Because a lot of times we go as humans, myself included, we go to victim mode.
(00:49:06):
They did this to me.
(00:49:07):
I'm like, OK, get yourself out of victim mode, you know.
(00:49:10):
What's an action you can take?
(00:49:11):
How can you perceive what's happening?
(00:49:13):
Now, if it's flat out illegal and discriminational, I'm not talking about that.
(00:49:17):
Like that's get out, sue the hell out of them, right?
(00:49:20):
That's a different world.
(00:49:21):
That's the outlier, you know, 100%.
(00:49:25):
I think the other though is there's so many options right now,
(00:49:29):
gig economy,
(00:49:30):
side hustle,
(00:49:31):
other things that you can do that you can take action on that explore some of that,
(00:49:37):
right?
(00:49:38):
And spend your life energy there.
(00:49:39):
It doesn't mean leave your job necessarily, but play with Bitcoin mining, right?
(00:49:43):
If that's your thing or if it's art or whatever else,
(00:49:45):
like don't put all your blessed life energy into the job if you absolutely hate it.
(00:49:52):
But also don't like,
(00:49:54):
don't hop place to place to place because sadly we bring all our crap with us from
(00:49:58):
place to place to place.
(00:49:59):
Right.
(00:49:59):
I'm like, huh?
(00:50:00):
Why is the same thing showing up?
(00:50:01):
I'm like, Oh, cause I'm here.
(00:50:02):
All right.
(00:50:06):
Long answer to your question,
(00:50:07):
but I think it's just,
(00:50:08):
um,
(00:50:09):
you know,
(00:50:09):
building up like those survival kind of resilience stuff and building yourself up
(00:50:14):
and then maybe making the work thing that we all bitch and complain about a little smaller.
(00:50:19):
you know, maybe give a little less energy.
(00:50:21):
And if we're really,
(00:50:22):
really going to go for it,
(00:50:23):
that person at work that we villainize or can't stand,
(00:50:25):
maybe just thinking like one,
(00:50:27):
like tiny,
(00:50:28):
nice thing about them,
(00:50:29):
or even open to the possibility that there might be something nice about them.
(00:50:32):
That's somewhere else on the planet.
(00:50:34):
It's, it's weird.
(00:50:34):
Those little tiny shifts.
(00:50:36):
It's like, we start doing stuff different, you know, like someone cut us off in traffic.
(00:50:40):
I'm like, Oh, effing asshole.
(00:50:41):
I'm like, wait a second.
(00:50:42):
Maybe they had a shitty day and didn't see it.
(00:50:44):
Right.
(00:50:45):
Or their cat died or something like, let me just back up and get off my stuff.
(00:50:50):
Yeah.
(00:50:50):
And that, that it's hard.
(00:50:53):
It's super hard to change your mindset to that, but it's necessary.
(00:50:57):
You gotta, you gotta kind of get thick skin.
(00:51:00):
Yeah.
(00:51:00):
Without numbing yourself to certain things.
(00:51:03):
Cause you're allowed to have emotions.
(00:51:05):
A hundred percent.
(00:51:06):
But don't overdo it.
(00:51:08):
You know, a hundred times.
(00:51:09):
Exactly.
(00:51:10):
Exactly.
(00:51:11):
Maybe 10, but not a hundred.
(00:51:14):
Yeah, exactly.
(00:51:15):
Yeah, I've always I've had, you know, everybody's had work issues.
(00:51:20):
And one of one of the issues that I had,
(00:51:24):
I was told to,
(00:51:26):
you know,
(00:51:26):
think about what they might have going on.
(00:51:30):
And I'm like, you know what?
(00:51:32):
I really do need to do that because this person may or may not have a lot of health
(00:51:39):
issues or family issues.
(00:51:42):
And yeah, they might be grumpy.
(00:51:43):
They might have said something that was.
(00:51:46):
not nice, but right.
(00:51:48):
Big deal.
(00:51:49):
Right.
(00:51:50):
You know, let's move on and, and keep working together.
(00:51:53):
And if you bring it up to them, usually it fixes the problem anyway.
(00:51:59):
Often does.
(00:52:00):
Yeah.
(00:52:00):
And it's funny how,
(00:52:01):
you know,
(00:52:03):
I know for myself and I think just of everyone I've known,
(00:52:05):
it's like,
(00:52:05):
we've had that one bad boss or one bad work situation.
(00:52:08):
We probably told the story like a hundred times.
(00:52:10):
Yeah.
(00:52:11):
Like why am I wasting my precious life energy on this planet?
(00:52:15):
like reliving that a hundred times and i've done it like i'm not like saying i'm
(00:52:18):
better than anyone or anything here but for sure but it's just dumb what the hell
(00:52:24):
yeah you're living in the past it's like that's over yeah exactly well you have
(00:52:31):
certainly enlightened russ with this topic and you have educated me with all the
(00:52:35):
bitcoin stuff awesome we have one last question for you chris this is a fun one
(00:52:40):
This is the one we ask all of our guests.
(00:52:42):
If you won $10 million tonight, what is the first thing you would do tomorrow?
(00:52:47):
You can probably guess I'd buy Bitcoin.
(00:52:50):
You know, I would probably put 9 million flat out in Bitcoin and I would do a million in Bitcoin mining.
(00:52:59):
There's a, the other thing about Bitcoin mine, it's a tax write-off.
(00:53:01):
So if you do it as a company, the energy spend and the minor spend is a business expense.
(00:53:05):
So you actually can,
(00:53:07):
make your Bitcoin investment a little bit larger that way.
(00:53:11):
learn something else.
(00:53:12):
Yeah.
(00:53:13):
Yeah.
(00:53:13):
So,
(00:53:13):
but yeah,
(00:53:14):
I would put 9 million in that and I would probably disappear to El Salvador,
(00:53:19):
some country that has Bitcoin as its currency.
(00:53:22):
What is it?
(00:53:22):
El, El, El Zante is, isn't that the, the Bitcoin beach over there?
(00:53:27):
Yeah.
(00:53:27):
I was looking at that.
(00:53:28):
I was like, man, we got a vacation.
(00:53:30):
My bad.
(00:53:30):
Right.
(00:53:30):
Yeah.
(00:53:39):
Well, again, Chris, we can't thank you enough for joining us.
(00:53:42):
Like this has been amazing.
(00:53:44):
And seriously,
(00:53:44):
when your book comes out,
(00:53:45):
I do want to have you back and we can talk it through and go over all of our
(00:53:50):
experiences together,
(00:53:51):
do a little therapy.
(00:53:55):
And we'll talk about all time highs in June.
(00:53:57):
That's right.
(00:54:00):
There you go.
(00:54:01):
So I do hope you come back and talk to us again.
(00:54:03):
Thank you so much.
(00:54:05):
Yeah, you bet.
(00:54:05):
My honor.
(00:54:05):
Thank you.
(00:54:07):
Thanks for listening to the Unfiltered Union.
(00:54:10):
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(00:54:12):
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